No right to live in India if you can't accept Vande Mataram: Pratap Sarangi amid anti-CAA protests

Accusing Congress of spreading misinformation about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi on Saturday said that those who do not accept India's freedom, unity, and Vande Mataram, have no right to stay in the country.

"Those who set the country on fire are not patriots. Those who do not accept India's freedom, unity, Vande Mataram, have no right to stay in the country," said Sarangi here in a press conference.

Sarangi said people should be thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring the CAA, the act which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians facing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Continuing his tirade against the Congress, the Union Minister further said that the CAA was a way to "atone for the sin of Partition" committed by the Congress.

"The CAA should have implemented 70 years ago. The act is a way to atone for a sin committed by our forefathers. Congress committed the sin, and we are atoning," he said.Last year in September, Sarangi gave a similar remark in wake of the protests erupted against the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir by the central government.

"When the staunch opposition parties of BJP have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision of scrapping Article 370, the Congress objected it. Amit Shah has made it clear to Congress leaders that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Siachen are also part of India. Those who do not accept Vande Mataram have no right to live in India," he had said at the Jan Jagran Sabha in Odisha.